Category Archives: Historic

California Festival of Speed

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California Festival of Speed

The 12th Annual California Festival of Speed, the largest Porsche event in the Southwest, comes to Auto Club Speedway April 5th thru 7th.  With participation from Porsche Club of America (PCA), who is also the event host, the Porsche Owners Club (POC), and Pirelli GT3 Cup Trophy USA West, this Festival of Speed promises to be one of the biggest and most exciting in recent years.

In addition to the PCA Cup Race and Time Trial, this year’s California Festival of Speed will also include POC Cup Racers and Time Trialers, a PCA Enduro, a PCA Zone 8 Concours, a Taste of Autocross, a celebration of 50 years of the 911, a Porsche Corral, swap meet, and of course, a Vendor Row.

On Friday, the California Festival of Speed features practice session for all groups, track tours, and a Pirelli GT3 Cup Race.  Saturday’s schedule includes more practice and qualifying, PCA/POC Sprint Races, another Pirelli GT3 Cup Race, and a 60 minute Enduro to close out the day.  Sunday brings three more sprint races, Pirelli GT3 Cup Race, and a Time Trial to close the weekend.

Check the calendar for detailed information, the event schedule for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and a free parking coupon.

Here is the track map for the Auto Club Speedway configuration used for the California Festival of Speed.

A handy web page for Schedule, Track Map, Time Trial entrants by PCA Class, & Results

RIP Chris Economaki (1920 – 2012)

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As a kid and growing up, the name and voice I associated most with motorsports was Chris Economaki; he passed away today aged 91.  I especially remember him covering all sorts of events on ABC Wide World of Sports – Indy500, Daytona 500, Formula 1, and Le Mans.  He later switched to CBS and covered similar events including the IROC series.

A couple of years ago, I came across a DVD of the 1965 LA Times Grand Prix at Riverside with Chris doing lots of trackside interviews with the greats of the time like Bruce McLaren and Dan Gurney.  You can still get it here over at The Motorsport Collector along with lots of other cool stuff. Again, as a kid, I loved Riverside from afar. Unfortunately I never saw it in person – it was long gone by the time I landed in California.  You can see a little bit of Chris Economaki as the pit reporter in this video of the 1965 race hosted by a younger Dave Despain:

Chris Economaki did so much for racing in the US – beginning with his first racing column as a 14 year old! His many contributions will be long remembered.  You can find his great book on auto racing as seen from his eyes over the course of many years here.

Update: I came a cross a nice article about Chris Economaki on the MotorSport Magazine website.

 

Coronado Speed Festival

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Not having attended in a coupe of years, I forgot how much I enjoy the Coronado Speed Festival.  For people in the San Diego area, it’s easy to reach, parking and getting in is a breeze, and there is a lot to see and do in a fairly compact area.  I really like that the grandstand, car show, paddock, vendor row, and food & drink areas are so close together. And of course, the Historic Motor Sports Association (HMSA) puts on a great show.  Some really interesting cars showed up at this year’s festivities.  With the passing of the great Carroll Shelby, there were many Cobras and GT 350s in attendance.

Car Show & Paddock

Coronado Speed Festival

Lamborghini Espada

Coronado Speed Festival

1971 AMC Javelin Trans-Am

Coronado Speed Festival

Mercedes-Benz 300SL

Group 5 Race

Group 5 includes 1959 to 1966 Production Cars equipped with disc brakes.  This is a large and diverse class ranging from a 1540cc Lotus S7 to a 5770cc Chevrolet Corvette.  The race pictures are taken looking back into the last turn onto the front straight & start/finish.

Coronado Speed Festival

1969 BMW 2002 & 1971 Alfa Romeo GTV

Coronado Speed Festival

1958 Corvette, 1971 Alfa Romea GTV, & 1967 Porsche 912

Coronado Speed Festival Group 6 Race

Group 6 includes 1962 to 1966 Production Cars over 2500cc.  This race had quite a few Shelby GT 350s as well as unusual cars such as the ISO Rivolta and a very fast Ginetta G4.

Coronado Speed Festival

1965 Ford Mustang (#151) battles with 1966 Shelby GT 350 (#6)

Coronado Speed Festival

1964 Cobra

Coronado Speed Festival

1966 Shelby GT 350

Group 7 Race

Group 7 includes 1965 to 1988  FIA Manufacturer Championship Cars such as Ferraris, Lolas, and Porsches.

Coronado Speed Festival

A couple of Porsche RSRs battle

Coronad Speed Festival

1972 Ferrari 312PSPL

Coronado Speed Festival Group 8 Race

Group 8 is historic NASCAR.

Coronado Speed Festival

Group 8 Race – Historic NASCAR

Coronado Speed Festival

Historic NASCAR – 2004 Ford Taurus

Many more pics here.

Coronado Speed Festival – Fleet Week San Diego

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Coronado Speed FestivalCoronado Speed Festival

Fleet Week San Diego brings the 15th Annual Coronado Speed Festival and 250 historic race cars to a 1.7 mile course on Naval Air Station North Island this weekend.  In addition to benefitting a great cause, the Coronado Speed Festival, sanctioned by the Historic Motor Sports Association (HMSA), is a well run, very fan-friendly, genuine racing event – the only one in San Diego since IMSA left Del Mar after 1992.

Carroll Shelby Tribute

At this year’s Coronado Speed Festival, HMSA, the same organization that sanctions the Monterey Motorsports Reunion, celebrates the great cars of Carroll Shelby.  Expect to see quite a few Cobras and Shelby GT350s out there.

Mazda MX-5 Cup

For the first time, the Mazda MX-5 Cup sponsored by Playboy will be part of the Coronado Speed Festival Weekend.  The MX-5 Cup is the entry level of production car based competition in SCCA Pro Racing.  The series runs on the premier road courses of North America, and many of their events are part of ALMS weekends.

Test Drives

BMW, VW, Mazda, and Chevrolet will be offering test drives on road courses laid out in areas adjacent to the race track and paddock.

Open, Friendly Paddock

The Coronado Speed Festival is know for an open and friendly paddock area where fans can get up close to some great cars and the competitors racing them.  More cars can be found at a car show benefitting the Navy’s Morale Welfare & Recreation fund.  Visitors will also find a vendor village, good food and drink, and a military static display.  This year, Fleet Week San Diego is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Navy SEALS in San Diego.

More information, including directions, maps, schedules, and ticket information can be found in the calendar and the following links:

Coronado Speed Festival, Saturday, September 22

Coronado Speed Festival, Sunday, September 23

 

Monterey Motorsports Reunion

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This week begins the annual pilgrimage of motorsports fans to the Monterey Peninsula for the Monterey Motorsports Reunion.  The week’s festivities have grown and grown over the years, and now there are multiple fabulous events on each day – from marque specific shows to auctions – really intensifying beginning with the Pebble Beach Tour d’Elegance on Wednesday the 16th and building throughout the rest of the week and weekend.  What started as historic car races at Laguna Seca now includes marque specific events, car club gatherings, multiple auctions at various venues and times, and food, drink, & aircraft events.  Although you easily could, you don’t need to spend a mint to have a great time.  Just walking around Monterey and Carmel at the right times will treat you to some very cool sights and sounds.

Here are a few shots from the 2011 Monterey Motorsports Reunion week:

The Quail

The Quail

Porsche 918 at the Quail Lodge

Monterey Motorsports Reunion Races At Laguna Seca

Monterey Motorsports Reunion

Monterey Motorsports Reunion

Monterey Motorsports Reunion

Monterey Motorsports Reunion

See the full gallery here.

HSR West 11th Annual Southern California Historic Sports Car Festival – Auto Club Speedway

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Auto Club Speedway hosted the HSR West 11th Annual Historic Sports Car Festival this weekend for two days of vintage and historic racing in the SoCal sun.  HSR West was running 10 run groups this weekend:

  • Group 1 - Formula Vee
  • Group 2 – Small & Medium Bore Production
  • Group 3 – Formula Ford Pacific
  • Group 4 – 2.5 B-Sedan
  • Group 5 – BOSS, Formula 5000, & Formula 2.0
  • Group 6 – Historic Stock Cars
  • Group 7 – Big Bore Production
  • Group 8 – GTP, Trans-Am, Can-AM, & FIA
  • Group 9 – Champ & Indy Car
  • Group X – Datsun-Nissan

HSR West ran a quality event with an open paddock, an entertaining race announcer, podium celebrations, and generally a really friendly atmosphere.  The luxury box seats on the inside of the main straight were open, and some folks brought their portable party along.  Add in dignitaries like Adam Carolla, a passionate historic Datsun racer, and Tony Adamowicz, the Trans-Am, Can-Am, Formula 5000, and IMSA veteran along with beautiful weather, and we had a recipe for some good old fashioned – literally – Southern California racing fun.  Tony Adamowicz also has a long association with Datsun-Nissan and Riverside International Automotive Museum, who had a big celebration event earlier in the week.  Being here with the HSR West crowd around all these historic race cars made me think of what it must have been like at Riverside or even Ontario back in the day.  Unfortunately I wasn’t here back then…

All pictures in this gallery were taken with a Canon EOS 40D; most were shot with Canon EF 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS USM Telephoto Zoom Lens for Canon SLR Cameras.

I also recently bought a new SanDisk Extreme Pro CompactFlash 16 GB Flash Memory Card SDCFXP-016G-X46,Black because my old card with a 30 MB/s write speed could not continuously keep up with the 6 fps of my Canon 40D.  The new card was fabulous; I could hold the shutter release down essentially indefinitely without the card slowing down my shots.  A really important consideration when shooting live action sports.

Weekend Speed Scene – HSR West & Barrett-Jackson OC

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Lots of cool action in SoCal this weekend!  Two of the best are Barrett-Jackson coming to the Orange County Fairgrounds and HSR West races at Auto Club Speedway.

Barrett-Jackson Saturday

Barrett-Jackson Sunday

HSR Saturday

HSR Sunday

Weather for both events should be great.  Stories and pix to follow…